Evelyn Hart set the divorce papers down on the marble coffee table, careful not to let them make a sound.
Everything in the Vale house looked perfect, expensive, untouched. Even the sunlight felt staged, pouring through those tall windows and bouncing off spotless surfaces that never once felt like home.
Lucas Vale didn't even look up.
He sat across from her, phone pressed to his ear. He looked so at ease, so in control, his voice low and sharp as he spoke.
"No, move the acquisition forward. I don't care if they're hesitant—push harder. Asia isn't going to wait."
He sounded calm. Unshakable. Like nothing could ever touch him.
Evelyn just watched.
She'd gotten good at waiting.
Waiting through breakfasts where the only sound was cutlery on porcelain. Waiting at dinner while his food went cold and he took "just one more call." Waiting on birthdays, anniversaries, holidays—sitting alone in big, cold rooms, telling herself that patience meant love.
She waited for three years.
Lucas finished his call and finally glanced up, his eyes flicking to the papers before sliding back to his tablet.
"What's this?" His tone said she was bothering him, nothing more.
"Our divorce papers," Evelyn said.
Her voice surprised her with its steadiness.
Lucas's eyebrows ticked up. He leaned in, flipping through the pages like they were just another set of contracts he needed to sign.
"You're overreacting," he said, flat as stone.
Evelyn felt something inside her twist, but she kept her face calm.
"I'm not," she said. "I've decided."
For a moment, Lucas actually looked at her. Really looked. "This is about the rumors, isn't it?"
"Yes."
He let out a breath, annoyed. "They're nothing. The media will get bored. The best thing is to ignore it."
Evelyn almost smiled.
Three years invisible, and he still thought the problem was the media.
Not the photos of him showing up at galas with other women.
Not the gossip, the whispers questioning why she was still his wife.
Not the way he said nothing when her name got dragged through the mud.
Just background noise to him.
"You never denied it," Evelyn said, her voice quiet.
Lucas frowned. "There was never anything to deny."
"That's exactly it," she answered.
He glanced back at the papers, already tuning out. "This is pointless."
"Sign it."
The room went silent.
Lucas paused, weighing it all like it was an inconvenience, not a loss. Then he picked up the pen.
No questions.
No protest.
Not even a second of hesitation.
He scribbled his name, sharp and final.
Evelyn watched the ink dry.
Lucas Vale.
The man she loved. The man who never really saw her.
"There," he said, pushing the papers back across the table. "The lawyers will handle the rest."
Evelyn nodded.
She gathered the papers, her hands steady, her face calm—masking all the storms she'd survived.
She walked toward the door.
"So that's it," she said, almost to herself, her fingers brushing the doorframe.
Lucas didn't answer.
She turned, gave him one last look.
He was already on his phone again.
Evelyn stepped out.
Her heels clicked on the marble as she walked away—each step lighter than the last, the weight she'd carried finally starting to slip away.
Lucas didn't even notice she was gone. Not at first.
He didn't notice the change in the air.
He didn't notice the quiet.
He didn't notice anything at all—
Until the front door clicked shut.
And for the first time in three years, the sound echoed.
Lucas Vale signed away his marriage without a second thought.
What he didn't see was that Evelyn wasn't just leaving the house.
She was leaving his world.
And this time, she wasn't coming back.